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Response to the Draft "Cornerstones Implementation
Plan"
AS-2435-98/FA/AA - November 5-6, 1998
RESOLVED: That the Academic Senate of the California State
University adopt the following response to Executive Vice Chancellor David
Spence's draft "Cornerstones Implementation Plan" (October 16,
1998).
The Board of Trustees adopted the Cornerstones Report on January 28, 1998.
The Academic Senate CSU adopted the Cornerstones Report's ten principles
on January 23, 1998. Implementing Cornerstones requires an active partnership
among the Board of Trustees, the CSU administration, and the CSU faculty,
students, staff, and administration on each campus. In general, the various
partners have the following responsibility in providing the high quality
education envisioned in Cornerstones:
• The CSU Board of Trustees has primary responsibility
to secure adequate funding from the State of California, to advocate for
the broad meaning of higher education in a pluralistic society, and to adopt
the regulations and policies that will provide an atmosphere of adaptability
and improvement;
• The CSU administration has primary responsibility to propose—in
consultation with faculty, students, and staff—the structure and administrative
flexibility to carry out Board of Trustees regulations and policies;
• The faculty, administration, students, and staff on each campus have
the primary responsibility to translate the principles of Cornerstones into
action in a way that maintains and improves upon past levels of quality
and meets the challenge envisioned for the future; and
• Faculty on each CSU campus have primary responsibility to study the
efficacy of the changes proposed by Cornerstones as a means of maintaining
the high level of excellence in baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate education.
It remains the faculty responsibility on each campus to determine the appropriate
number of units required for awarding degrees for our diverse baccalaureate
programs for example, applying a priori 120 units as a benchmark for our
diverse programs is ill advised.
The ASCSU recommends that Executive Vice Chancellor Spence, in preparing
an implementation report for the Board of Trustees, address the need to
remove barriers to experimentation and creative problem solving, and specify
as priorities the following Cornerstones objectives:
1. Recognize campus autonomy and uniqueness as important
factors in meeting clearly defined system policy goals (Principle 10).
2. Support and encourage faculty scholarship, research, and creative activity
as essential components to the CSU’s teaching mission (Principle 4).
3. Provide faculty with a fair and reasonable reward system that allows
the CSU to attract and retain the highest quality faculty (Principle 4,
recommendation 4a).
4. Facilitate and provide funding to achieve the conditions that will allow
faculty to carry out their professorial responsibilities, by funding efforts
to "[r]einvest significantly in faculty, through a faculty development
and reinvestment program that protects the core resources and ensures additional
resources for faculty development and learning" (Cornerstones, p. 21)
through such things as:
• increased support for faculty to work at the cutting
edge of their disciplines;
• adjusted course load levels to be consonant with those in current
CPEC comparison institutions;
• increased sabbatical leave opportunities;
• increased funds for travel and participation in professional conferences;
• increased assigned time, technical and clerical staff support, and
other resources to assist faculty in their professional growth;
• increased assigned time to develop student learning outcomes and
assessment methods;
• increased assigned time and technical staff support, as well as acquisition
of appropriate technology, to study the possible conversion of courses to
new modes of instruction and, where appropriate, carry out the conversion;
• expanded assigned time for training programs in the use of technology-mediated
instruction;
• expanded summer and off-term stipends to support faculty development
of educational initiatives;
• increased investment in library resources;
• increased investment in physical facilities and instructional equipment;
• expanded instructional development and support operations and expanded
support for campus faculty development centers;
• greater support to new faculty during their earlier years as they
acclimate to the academic profession, including regular and predictable
salary step increases;
• increased funding for faculty to study the efficacy and advisability
of gradually shifting attention in the CSU from a course and unit-based
curriculum to one that places greater emphasis on student learning outcomes;
• increased assigned time to review and strengthen articulation for
General Education among CSU universities and community colleges; and
• increased assigned time and other funding to enable faculty from
CSU campuses, community colleges, and the University of California to convene
in disciplinary groups to improve articulation of courses and competencies
within degree programs. Until faculty within disciplines has reached consensus
on specific transferability of major requirements, the CSU should not encourage
any perception that there is a seamless system in this regard.
5. Acknowledge that faculty retain primary responsibility to develop learning
outcomes and assessment (Principle 1). Where Step A in the draft Implementation
Plan refers to the university, it should specifically assign those responsibilities
to the faculty.
6. Recognize that not all desirable outcomes of a baccalaureate education
can be easily measured. Such outcomes include a desire for life-long learning;
development of social skills through interaction with peers and colleagues;
ethical, moral, and social responsibility including effective participation
in a democratic society; and appreciation and tolerance for diversity in
all of its manifestations (Principle 1 and the CSU Academic Senate Report
Baccalaureate Education in the California State University).
7. Increase outreach efforts between CSU and K-12 in an effort to ensure
a greater preparation of high school students who are prepared for college
level study upon entry to CSU (Principle 5, recommendation 5a).
8. Support innovative ways to involve students as active partners with faculty
in the learning process, including student involvement in scholarship, research,
and creative activity under faculty guidance (Principle 3).
9. Ensure stable state funding for higher education to meet the goals of
the California Master Plan
(Principle 7).
10. Develop specific means to measure overall effectiveness and efficiency
of administrative units at all levels. Such accountability addresses institutional
achievements of educational outcomes, campus climate, institutional governance
style, resource allocations, personnel transactions, fiscal accounting,
and compliance with the law. (Principle 7 and the "Conclusion: Shared
Responsibility").
11. Foster a collegial and collaborative partnership between faculty and
administration
(Principle 4, recommendation 4a).
Many of the proposed Cornerstones initiatives will require significant financial
support. These new proposals must not be implemented at the expense of our
existing tradition of educational excellence. For instance, it shall be
noted that throughout their history CSU campuses have sought excellence
and have produced the current high level of quality evident in the CSU.
Thus, many of the prescriptions for excellence found in Cornerstones are
already found on CSU campuses. For example, faculty have:
• awarded degrees on the basis of demonstrated learning;
• stated clearly through catalogs, advising, and syllabi what students
are expected to know;
• assured breadth and depth of knowledge through General Education
and disciplinary majors;
• articulated course requirements effectively with the community colleges,
the University of California, and among universities in the CSU system;
• focused on students and work diligently to meet the needs of a diverse
and changing student population;
• encouraged students to actively participate in their learning through
involvement in scholarship, research, and creative activities;
• supported—within the limited resources available—faculty
development, both professional and pedagogical;
• provided a quality educational experience in a reasonable time;
• striven to carry out the goals of the California Master Plan while
maintaining access for all qualified students who desire an education;
• served effectively the communities and citizens of their region;
• made significant and meaningful contributions to the California economy
and society;
• assessed on a continuing basis student learning—at the course,
program, and graduation levels;
• worked within the context of clearly stated mission statements that
identify specific educational goals; and
• created through a two-year study by the Academic Senate CSU, a statement
on the baccalaureate that recognizes that undergraduate education in the
CSU is an ongoing cumulative process and not primarily a series of measurable,
discrete learning outcomes.
All of these existing activities deserve our continued support. We must
remember that our tradition of excellence forms the educational foundation
upon which we will place the Cornerstones of the next century.
APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY -- December 11, 1998
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